frankly this was totally awesome

this morning, instead of the usual saturday morning breakfast request rousing me from my slumber, i had a different request. "please help me zip up my scarlett o'hara dress!" sweeter words were never spoken!

 she had me put one of her scarlett dresses on her baby too. if i start now i think i can create new scarlett o'hara costumes for myself, scarlett and baby X by halloween. corsets for everyone!

she's also taken an interest in some of my Gone With The Wind mementos and memorabilia. i asked scarlett what she thought of rhett butler and she said she didn't like him because he had "butt" in his name and that's a bad word.

she even wore it to our neighborhood easter egg hunt. 

blowout- not the diaper kind

this past weekend thomas and i officially crossed over into the realm of parents who make their kid's birthday too big of a deal. 

but, when no one is renting bounce houses in march and the operator offers a discount and a 2 for 1 deal, you can't help but get a little caught up in the carnival atmosphere. normally, thomas and i are so cheap that i think i'm going overboard with a costco cake and 5lbs of candy stuffed in a pinata.

in my defense, i don't make anything cute or that could be recognized by children as fun or crafty(except babies). i didn't want to spend a gob of money on supplies and then whatever it was naturally wouldn't turn out so i would have to throw it across the room in disgust and then it would have been a complete waste of cash. plus, i don't really enjoy planning parties and all i had to do for this was have a backyard. i didn't have to visit crazytown with party planning stress which also meant that thomas and i got along all day. BONUS. i'm a little unbearable to be around when it comes to anxiety in the first place and being pregnant makes everything extra special.  finally, there was nary a personalized water bottle in sight. 

and we will never be doing anything like this again, unless it's my birthday. 

reagan seemed pretty pleased.

and we saw a LOT of scarlett's underwear.

this what happens when you don't get any sleep the night before your big party and you only have cake and pizza to eat all day and it was a warm 85 degrees
OR

the anatomy of a sugar crash:

and,
not the best idea i've ever had:

but who wouldn't want a baby born in a bounce house? i ask you! it's not that far removed from one of those inflatable water birth tubs. and the whole family can be involved! and neighbors! and strangers!

so young, so dumb, so in love

*the future mr. and mrs. simpson, circa 2002. as reagan would say, "was this picture from before i was in your stomach?" yes, reagan. yes it is. 

ten years ago this week thomas and i got engaged. it's quite the dramatic story. march 3rd, 2002, thomas and i attended a young single adult fireside at BYU. the speaker was Elder M. Russell Ballard and his talk was entitled, "Be Strong in the Lord, and in the Power of His Might". it is an excellent talk and each time elder ballard mentioned dating and marriage and the importance of not putting off choosing a spouse, i would poke thomas in the back. one thing thomas loves about me is my subtlety. after the fireside, thomas and i got into a pretty good disagreement about the future of our relationship and decided perhaps this wasn't the relationship we both wanted. then we both went home. i then rehashed every single minute detail with my roommates and called everyone i knew and dissected every word of every conversation we ever had and we concluded that i was right about EVERY point i made and that thomas didn't know what he was missing out on and that i could do so much better and blah blah blah. so, in my rational and calm state i got out a scrap of paper and a blue highlighter(the hallmarks of a well thought out idea) and wrote thomas a letter telling him exactly what i thought of him. i marched myself over to his apartment a few blocks away and thrust the note in his hands and then walked home. the difference between boys and girls? i'm sure it didn't even cross thomas's mind to to discuss our argument in detail with his roommates. 

the next morning, whilst i was showering, i got a knock on the bathroom door from my roommate saying that thomas was at the front door and wanted to see me. so, i got my wits about me and prepared to put thomas in his place. how dare he come and see me! didn't my blue highlighter note say it all? since i was still in a state of rational thought, i threw on a shirt and wrapped a towel around my waist and went to the front door to commence battle. as soon as i saw thomas, he dropped to his knee and pulled out a ring and asked me to marry him. and i completely forgot myself and said yes(obviously. i'm glad that he finally came around to my way of thinking. i almost typed that with a straight face). and we've been happily ever after ever since.

which really means i can put up with the VERY IMPORTANT PILES:

 and he puts up with my VERY IMPORTANT SHOES:

each and every pair serves an important and distinct purpose. this photo does not include the pairs i keep in the shoe basket by the garage door for easy access or my running shoes/yard work shoes that are kept in a separate location due to stinkiness.